Anderson fined for donation violations

The commission approved the recommended fines at a meeting yesterday on a 4-0 vote.

At the meeting, Commissioner Elizabeth Garrett questioned why Anderson and the Fresno County Republican committee were being fined but not the original donors.

“Why was no action taken in regard to the five entities — three dealing with the Hamann family and two Indian tribes — who made the contributions in excess of the contribution limits to candidates?” asked Garrett, a law professor at the University of Southern California. She asked whether there was any evidence that the donors intended to have the money transferred to Anderson’s campaign.

Gary Winuk, chief of the commission’s enforcement division, replied, “In my review of the evidence, there was insufficient evidence to sustain us going forward or we would have done so.”

The enforcement division also did not find evidence to warrant fining the Placer County and Stanislaus County Republican committees. But two Placer County party officials have resigned over the transactions, questioning why the county committee would give money to a San Diego County legislator whom they didn’t know.

Anderson has filed his intention to run for re-election in the 77th Assembly District in 2010, but said yesterday that he expects to run in the overlapping 36th Senate District instead. Had Anderson been allowed to keep the central committee money, he would have been able to raise more money for his Senate campaign and avoided a little-known provision of the Political Reform Act.

The provision provides that a candidate running for re-election for the same office can transfer all unspent money from the previous campaign with no strings attached. But a candidate running for a different office must attribute surplus funds to specific donors — meaning he cannot raise additional money from them if they have already given the legal maximum.

Calls to the Hamann family and the Barona and Sycuan bands seeking comment yesterday were not returned.

A.P. Sidhu, chairman of the Fresno County Republican Central Committee, did not respond to requests for comment, but in the past blamed the reporting violations on an inexperienced treasurer.

The two-month investigation was uncommonly quick by Fair Political Practices Commission standards.

“The fact that it was done at the speed it was done, there’s a possibility that it prevented additional violations,” said Roman Porter, executive director of the commission.

Commission investigators subpoenaed records but did not take sworn depositions of witnesses, which could have shed light on whether improper coordination occurred among those not fined.

“Unfortunately, we’re a state agency that doesn’t have unlimited resources,” Porter said. “We trust our professionals to make the appropriate decision of when to continue with a case and when they don’t have enough evidence to move forward.”